1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a guarantee hinge closure, and specifically for bottles and containers which contain flowable media and whose pour-out spouts are closed with a film which is welded or bonded onto the edge of the pour-out spout. Ketchup bottles which comprise such pour-out spouts closed with a film are widespread and known to everybody. With the regard to the flowable contents however it need not be the case of foodstuffs. Such hinge closures could just as easily be applied to bottles for paints, chemicals, lubricants etc, above all for relatively viscous media which are to be poured out in a dosed manner. The bottle spouts of such a bottle, specifically such as of a ketchup bottle is provided with an outer thread onto which a plastic closure with a lid cap integrally formed thereon in a hinged manner is screwed. The plastic closure at the same time consists of a lower part which comprises an inner thread, and on its upper side closes the bottle opening with the exception of a relatively small pour-out spout which has a magnitude of about one fifth of the diameter of the bottle opening. A film hinge is arranged at the edge of this lower part via which a lid cap is integrally formed as one piece. The lid cap in its height is dimensioned such that in the condition when it is pivoted onto the lower part, it completely accommodates the pour-out spout within itself and thus closes it all around. A perpendicularly projecting muff is integrally formed on its inner side, which in the pivoted-closed condition encloses the pour-out spout. The pour-out spout may at its upper edge on the outer side form a slightly protruding bead which then fits into a corresponding recess in the inner side of the muff on the lid cap. By way of this a sealed closure of the pour-out spout is achieved and the lid cap in the closed, that is to say pivoted-closed position snaps on the lower part of the closure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The filling of the bottle and of the container however is effected before such a hinge closure is screwed onto a threaded spout. Afterwards the bottle or the container is firstly sealed with a sealing film. With this film it is the case of an aluminium film or a plastic film which is bonded or welded onto the upper closure edge of the threaded spout. Afterwards the hinge closure is screwed on, and the bottle or the container reaches the customer in this form So that the customer may pour out the contents of the bottle or the container, firstly this film must be cut open, pierced, torn open, punched or cut through, or however it is completely removed. In many cases, to do this, firstly the lid cap on the hinge closure is flipped open and then with a sharp object, for example with a needle, point of a scissors, a sharp knife, a toothpick or a similar aid, the film is pierced through the pour-out spout and pushed downwards. In most cases however a clean pour-out hole does not arise. On the contrary, shreds of film project downwards. If for example ketchup is poured out through the pour-out spout then as a result of the consistency of this fluid some ketchup unavoidably remains clinging to these shreds. One may observe the same effect with other fluids having a similar consistency or viscosity. If then the bottle is then placed in its upright condition again, then this ketchup dries on the shreds and here forms a crust which grows somewhat with each renewed pouring-out until the pour out spout in the worst case is blocked. The correct opening of a hinge closure on a ketchup bottle or on another container with a hinge closure which is closed by film in this manner must therefore be effected such that firstly the plastic hinge closure is screwed loose from the bottle of container spout, and then completely removed from this. Then the film should be completely tom away from the upper edge of the pour-out spout. The films for this often comprise a tear tab. If one opens a such a hinge closure exactly in this manner, then its functioning is not inhibited and the contents may be poured out in a directed and clean manner. However, even if such a closure is operated in the correct manner, it does not satisfy all aspects.
On the closed closure for example one may not recognise whether is has already been opened once before or not, that is to say whether its lid cap has already been pivoted open once before or not. For this a separate guarantee strip would be required which would have to be removed before pivoting open the lid cap. Such a strip however is absent with many such hinge closures. One makes do with sticking a paper strip over the whole closure, whose two ends extend downwards onto the bottle neck. However a hinge closure which itself would form a guaranteed closure is demanded, and from which one would furthermore automatically be able to see if its lid cap has already been pivoted up once before or not, without a separate paper seal strip becoming necessary for this.
A second even more serious disadvantage for the described hinge closures lies in the fact that the clearing of the passage of the pour-out spout is not solved in a satisfactory manner. As mentioned, one either requires a sharp object which however anyway does not lead to a clean opening of the passage, or one must firstly unscrew the whole closure completely from the bottle spout, then tear away the film and afterwards screw the hinge closure back onto the bottle. This is an operation whose necessity is not immediately evident to the user of such a closure for the first time. It may be the reason why, to help, the film is often opened through the pour-out spout with a sharp object. The correct opening by way of the temporary complete removal of the hinge closure and a subsequent removal of the film and rescrewing the closure as a whole constitutes an effort which one wishes to eliminate, in order to render the closure more user-friendly.